Chapter 225: Young Master Huo’s sweetheart (3)_1
Just as she was thinking, suddenly a loud wailing erupted from outside the carriage, a chaotic mix of curses, the sound of horse hooves, and mournful cries.
Cai Wei heard the commotion and lifted the curtain again to look outside.
Not far away on the stone-paved road, a group of yamen runners on tall horses escorted five or six haggard-looking men, shouting and scolding as they went. The escort leader Zhang Biaotou, whom she had seen last night, was now walking in shackles at the front, his already pale face now even more gaunt. His reddened eyes swept back at intervals, revealing a look of unbearable sorrow.
Behind them, a frail old woman with white hair stumbled along, her mouth shrieking non-stop, "My poor son..."
The old woman’s features were withered and gaunt, her body on the verge of collapse, her voice a heart-wrenching keening wail that stirred compassion in all who heard it.
On either side of her, two young women steadied her, their faces discolored from crying, they kept calling out, "My husband... my husband..."
Three other women, pulling along several children, followed behind the old woman, crying so violently it seemed the sky might collapse, their cries deafening.
The passers-by on the road all stopped to watch, sighing incessantly.
"Ah, what a tragedy. The once renowned Wei Yuan Escort Agency is ruined!"
"Who can say otherwise? In the past, who didn’t envy Old Madame Zhang for raising these five brave and skilled sons? Yet, who could’ve imagined that in a single night, they would all end up as prisoners..."
"It’s all because of the mountain thieves. If they hadn’t intercepted Wei Yuan’s escort, the agency wouldn’t have fallen to this point, and Old Madame Zhang wouldn’t have to watch her five sons go to jail!"